And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Rev 12:11 (ESV)

Conquered – Part 1

This verse is in the middle of a story/vision/dream that John had about dragons, angels and Jesus. Apart from sounding like the first Dungeons and Dragons game ever played (we can handle a little humour, right?), it was John's way of interpreting what he saw in the spirit; the battle between good and evil, how they affect our lives, and in turn, how we affect them.

“They have conquered him.”

Who are ‘they’ and who is ‘him’? It’s somewhat clear that ‘they’ are humanity. You and I; Us. ‘Him' is the ancient serpent/dragon/satan/devil – the one whom John said is “the deceiver of the whole world.”

Straight away, my mind goes to thoughts of, “whoever he is, he hasn’t been conquered yet” (honesty is the best policy…right?) Everywhere I look, there is pain and heartache, war and torment, lack and injustice. Try telling the woman whose husband just left her; or the child whose parents abuse him; or the worker who is underpaid and taken advantage of; or the refugee fleeing their war-torn country on a boat with nothing but their family clutched tightly to them and the clothes on their back; or the teenager failing high school and dealing with drug addiction; or the parents of a murdered woman; or the mom who has to put her child into hospice care – try telling all of those people that evil has been conquered.

Try telling yourself that.

I watched a documentary recently called, “Cartel Land.” It’s amazing, heart wrenching and grey… At the end of it, Jesse (husband) and I started talking about how on earth can we eradicate evil from the world. We write a lot about love being the answer, and we believe it is, but if someone has a gun to your head, love probably won’t stop them from pulling the trigger. If a drug cartel (as in the documentary) is terrorising a town, showing up on their doorstep with a box of cookies and the complete box set of the TV Show “Friends” isn’t likely to stop them in their tracks.

I wrestle with what John said. And that's why he said it… not so that we could read and think, “how lovely…” But so that we would read and dig into it, wrestle it out, chew on it, talk about it, and then do it all over again for the rest of our lives. Faith is not a destination. The Bible is not a flat text. It's complicated, winding, messy, it often doesn't make sense, and it is best read approached with faith – not blind that says, “it's written so I believe it…” But faith that sometimes goes, “what the heck? What do you mean God? Why is this in here? Show me…” Faith that explores and learns and grows. Wondrous faith. Teachable faith.

The only thing I’m certain of is that life is only fully explored when lived by faith – which is the very absence of certainty.

So when I’m told by John, through a crazy vision that he had possibly after eating too many prawn cocktails on Patmos, that I can overcome evil/darkness/satan/deception by the blood of the lamb (reference to Jesus) and the word of my testimony, I may not be certain that evil has been conquered, but I have faith that I can be a part of it.

Go to Part 2 – Physical Form »

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